29 · 气垫船
The Hovercraft
区分观点、依据、例子与限制，用自己的话准确重建论述。
课文精读整篇课文
点选一句，句末即可听读；连起意思，大声读一遍。
Many strange new means of transport have been developed in our century, the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft. In 1953, a former electronics engineer in his fifties, Christopher Cockerell, who had turned to boat-building on the Norfolk Broads, suggested an idea on which he had been working for many years to the British Government and industrial circles. It was the idea of supporting a craft on a "pad", or cushion, of low-pressure air, ringed with a curtain of higher pressure air. Ever since, people have had difficulty in deciding whether the craft should be ranged among ships, planes, or land vehicles—for it is something in between a boat and an aircraft. As a shipbuilder, Cockerell was trying to find a solution to the problem of the wave resistance which wastes a good deal of a surface ship's power and limits its speed. His answer was to lift the vessel out of the water by making it ride on a cushion of air no more than one or two feet thick. This is done by a great number of ring-shaped air jets on the bottom of the craft. It "flies", therefore, but it cannot fly higher—its action depends on the surface, water or ground, over which it rides.
The first tests on the Solent in 1959 caused a sensation. The hovercraft travelled first over the water, then mounted the beach, climbed up the dunes, and sat down on a road. Later it crossed the Channel, riding smoothly over the waves, which presented no problem.
Since that time, various types of hovercraft have appeared and taken up regular service. The hovercraft is particularly useful in large areas with poor communications such as Africa or Australia; it can become a "flying fruit-bowl", carrying bananas from the plantations to the ports; giant hovercraft liners could span the Atlantic; and the railway of the future may well be the "hovertrain", riding on its air cushion over a single rail, which it never touches, at speeds up to 300 m.p.h.—the possibilities appear unlimited.
本课原文与译文
展开完整文本 · 便于查阅与检索
整篇课文
Many strange new means of transport have been developed in our century, the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft. In 1953, a former electronics engineer in his fifties, Christopher Cockerell, who had turned to boat-building on the Norfolk Broads, suggested an idea on which he had been working for many years to the British Government and industrial circles. It was the idea of supporting a craft on a "pad", or cushion, of low-pressure air, ringed with a curtain of higher pressure air. Ever since, people have had difficulty in deciding whether the craft should be ranged among ships, planes, or land vehicles—for it is something in between a boat and an aircraft. As a shipbuilder, Cockerell was trying to find a solution to the problem of the wave resistance which wastes a good deal of a surface ship's power and limits its speed. His answer was to lift the vessel out of the water by making it ride on a cushion of air no more than one or two feet thick. This is done by a great number of ring-shaped air jets on the bottom of the craft. It "flies", therefore, but it cannot fly higher—its action depends on the surface, water or ground, over which it rides.
The first tests on the Solent in 1959 caused a sensation. The hovercraft travelled first over the water, then mounted the beach, climbed up the dunes, and sat down on a road. Later it crossed the Channel, riding smoothly over the waves, which presented no problem.
Since that time, various types of hovercraft have appeared and taken up regular service. The hovercraft is particularly useful in large areas with poor communications such as Africa or Australia; it can become a "flying fruit-bowl", carrying bananas from the plantations to the ports; giant hovercraft liners could span the Atlantic; and the railway of the future may well be the "hovertrain", riding on its air cushion over a single rail, which it never touches, at speeds up to 300 m.p.h.—the possibilities appear unlimited.
本世纪出现了许多新奇的交通工具，最奇特的或许要数气垫船。一九五三年，五十多岁的克里斯托弗·科克雷尔，向英国政府和工业界提出了一个研究多年的构想。他原是电子工程师，后来转到诺福克湖区造船。他设想，用一层低压空气形成的“垫子”托起船体，再在周围围上一圈压力更高的气幕。从那以后，人们一直难以决定，该把这种工具归入船、飞机，还是陆上车辆，因为它介于船和飞机之间。作为造船者，科克雷尔想解决的是波浪阻力问题：这种阻力消耗了水面船只的大量动力，也限制了航速。他的办法是让船体离开水面，乘在一层只有一两英尺厚的气垫上。船底大量环形喷气口实现了这一设想。因此，它确实是在“飞”，却不能飞得更高；它的运行始终离不开下方的水面或地面。
一九五九年，索伦特海峡的首次试航引起轰动。气垫船先掠过水面，再登上海滩，爬上沙丘，最后停在一条道路上。后来，它又横渡英吉利海峡，平稳地驶过波浪，毫无困难。
此后，各种气垫船陆续出现，投入常规运营。在非洲、澳大利亚这类幅员辽阔而交通不便的地区，它尤其有用。它可以成为“会飞的水果盘”，把香蕉从种植园运到港口；巨型气垫客轮或许能够横跨大西洋；未来的铁路也可能采用“气垫列车”，让列车靠气垫悬在一根轨道上方，始终不接触轨道，时速可达三百英里。种种可能，仿佛没有尽头。
学完这一课
主句概括一种发展，再补出其中最突出的例子。
译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第117—120页，2022年2月第2版。